MissionStatements ParkwaySchool District Mission Statement
The mission of the Parkway School District is to ensure all students are capable, curious and confident learners who understand and respond to the challenges of an ever-changing world.
District Library Mission Statement
The Librarians have been discussing having the mission of the Parkway School District Library be the same as the District Mission.
School Mission Statement
The mission of Parkway Southwest Middle School is to ensure students are capable, curious, and confident learners who are well equipped to understand and respond to the challenges of an ever-changing world.
School Library Mission Statement2009 - 2010
The mission of the Southwest Middle School Library Media Center is to ensure that students and staff become effective users of information. Students will be critical thinkers, skillful researchers, ethical users of information and self - directed readers.
Goal Statements ParkwaySchool DistrictGoals, 2008-2011
1. Increase academic achievement and engagement for all students
2. Increase student success through providing a safe environment, promoting healthy behaviors and fostering positive relationships.
3. Provide learning environments necessary for success in a competitive, global society.
District Library Goals, 2009-2010
Develop a K-12 guaranteed and viable district Library curriculum. (BOE #1)
Support the guaranteed and viable Parkway curriculum in all content areas. (BOE #1)
Focus on diversity in order to foster student, staff and community membership. (BOE #2)
Rethink library physical and virtual spaces to address the needs of 21st-century learners. (BOE #3)
School Goals
1. Southwest Middle will achieve proficiency through the Safe Harbor numbers/targets in Communication Arts.
2. Southwest Middle will achieve proficiency through the Safe Harbor numbers/targets in Mathematics.
School Library Goals 1. Provide a program that functions as the information center of the school.
2. Provide a carefully selected and systematically organized local collection of diverse learning materials designed to support the curriculum and encourage leisure reading.
3. Collaborate with and assist the faculty and staff of Southwest Middle.
Overview of the Library Program
The Southwest Middle School Library is open from 7:15 to 2:35 daily, on Thursday the library has extended hours until 3:25. One certified library media specialist and one library secretary, staff the library. Our library is on a flexible schedule. Teachers and students are welcome to visit at anytime throughout the day. Teachers may reserve time for research or visit with a class to check out books. The librarian and teacher collaborate on activities, instruction, research or projects that may occur in the library. The Library is open during all three lunches.
Three components of SWM library program are collaboration, information literacy, and literature appreciation. A spirit of collaboration is present in the library with librarian and teacher. Whether it is through formal communication or casual conversation units of study are discussed, planned and implemented.
Information literacy skills are taught formally and informally to students. The use of the PANDA resources is stress to all students and teachers when researching.
To encourage a love of reading, books and displays have been carefully planned, as well as incentives created for students participate in the Missouri Book Award reading program. The librarian and library secretary are always available to discuss and assist students with book selection.
Interaction with students and teachers is important for the library staff. The librarian and library secretary create a warm and open environment. They are there to meet the needs of the school community in a timely matter.
Library Staffing The library is staffed by a full time secretary, Deanna Murrel. Deanna's hours are 7:00am to 1:30pm Monday through Friday. Deanna has attended two professional development courses on PhotoShop. She has also attended a Movie Maker and SmartBoard class.
LIBRARY INSTRUCTIONAL PROGRAM Instruction with students
See side bar for instruction with students for each grade level in middle school.
Addressing the needs of special groups(students of color; boys who may be reluctant readers; students reading above/below grade level….)in instruction or in collection development.
I asked Gina Donato, the Follett representative to guide me to an effective way of identifying "good" diverse books to supplement the SWM library. We used Titlewave's collection development to locate multicultural books and books with high interest, low read levels. I have purchased several from these lists.
I have also replaced worn out classics and placed them in a special collection for our students reading above grade level. Books and posters on display have multicultural themes or photographs.
Collaboration with teachers, instructional coaches and technology integration specialists.
First Trimester collaboration:
Lauren Brauss (6th grade SS) - State, Province and Territory Project. We collaboratively created the rubic for the project. I will be working with her in January to create her project on religions of the world. I will be working on getting away from the "bird unit."
Monica Kilcullin (6th grade SS) - South America Project. We collaborated on the rubric and expectations for this project.
Kim Linskog, TIS, and I collaborated for the December Round Table. We used Google presentation and met several times to plan the Round Table discussion. We collaboratively led the discussion.
Second Trimester collaboration:
Eileen Homer (7th grade Comm Arts) & Susan Doering (Lit. Coach) - The three of us collaborated to create, teach and assess a 7th grade Nonfiction unit. The unit concluded with students creating a travel brochure to a destination of their choosing using the book 1000 Places to Visit Before you Die. A class set of these books were purchased with SWM PTO Grant money.
Lauren Brauss (6th grade SS) - Lauren and I collaborated on a religions of the world project using Webspiration. We created, taught and assessed students for this project. Students researched in groups of three a religion of the world, organized the information into webs and presented the information to the class.
Resources: Webspiration Sign-Up Directions-1.doc Webspiration Diagram Directions.doc
Julie Cole (7th grade SS) - Julie and I collaborated on an end of the year Middle Ages project. Students researched a topic on the Middle Ages, such as, Holy Wars or Role of Women in Society. Then they researched the same topic in the 1850s, 1950s and present day. Finally, they were to show their learning through a creative presentation of their choosing. Students were required to use books, databases and websites. As the students began internet researching, I reinforced website evaluation they learned last year. For the project, students were required to locate one unreliable website and state why it was unreliable.
Kim Linskog (TIS) - Kim and I collaborated to present a Movie Maker Day. Teachers signed up their classes to learn the ins and outs of Movie Maker.
OTHER LIBRARY ACTIVITIES Library publicity activities,communication with parents and community, special events First Trimester:
PTO Book Fair: November 9-12
Teachers and students participated in Book Fair BINGO, grade level challenges and locker lotto.
Library Book Fair: February 8 - 11
Students participated in Book Fair BINGO, Locker lotto and individual giveaways.
March Madness: SWM Best Reads Tournament.
This Book Tournament is run like the NCAA basketball tournament. Brackets are formed, students choose which books they think will win. Students then vote for their favorites to move books through the brackets.
Teen Tech Week: March 8 -11
Teachers brought their students to the library to participate and learn about various tech tools, such as, Google Searching, Audacity, Movie Maker and Pictures. See attached advertisement and schedule. Teen Tech Week10.pdf
National School Library Week: April 12 - 15
Students participated in "Win it in a SW Minute" Challenges.
Monday – Bobblehead, Place head sweatband with pedometer on it on your head, move head to add steps to pedometer for one minute.
Tuesday – Balloons UP! Keep 2 or 3 balloons in air for one minute.
Wednesday – Stack it Up, students are given a stack of cups all one color except one. Move the odd color cup from the bottom of stack back to the bottom alternating hands.
Thursday – Balloon Blow, blow a balloon up and release air to move cups off a table one at a time.
Friday – CLEAR and CANDY DAY! Come to the library and check your account, if you have no overdue books receive a piece of candy.
Library spaces(furniture, shelving; changing the look of the library; changing the use of your space….): First Trimester:
During the first trimester the library classroom was repainted and new tables on wheels were purchased. The entrance to the library was also painted. The PTO granted a wish list for $500 to update seating for the library. That money has not been spent yet. Future needs and wants include; painting the pillars, new couches, new computer tables, mounted flat screen TV and more computers (HP laptops).
Second Trimester:
The Library was awarded a PTO grant in the fall. The money was used to purchase a tall table and three red stools for the entrance of the library. Student and staff love the new furniture and wold like to see more. I am in the middle of moving our collections around. I have combined the reference and nonfiction sections and have redesigned the fiction section to look more book store like. Also, I have "pulled out" our classics and graphic novels to create a special collection location.
LMS PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES Participation in Professional Organizations MASL, MSTA, SLSSA
Participation in Parkway Professional Development (district, building, librarians)
o Professional development, training sessions or other presentations delivered to staff
See Side Bar Page
o Professional development attended as a participant
See Side Bar Page
Parkway committees (district, building, librarians)
1. Building Committees
Technology Committee
Building Leadership Team (BLT)
Outdoor School Building Leader
Outdoor School Staff
Literacy Committee
2. Library Committees
Curriculum Writing/Program Evaluation Committee
3. District committees
Outdoor School
TFC
Project Parkway
Food for thought(Books, articles read. Reflections) First Trimester: Much of my reading this trimester revolved around the MO award nominees. My favorites thus far are Billie Standish was Here and Atherton: House of Power. I have been reading Librarians as Learning Specialist for the Collaborative Librarian class with Carol Kohnen. Also, I read monthly library periodicals; LMC, School Library Monthly, and School Library Journal.
An article that Mary Ann McFarland and I wrote appeared in the October issue of LMC. It was pretty exciting to finally see the article in print after all our hard work. I would enjoy submitting work to a periodical in the future.
Second Trimester:
I continue to stay up to date on school library matters through professional periodicals. I began to read the new nominees for 2010-11. My summer reading list consists of Truman nominees and 21st -Century Learning in School Libraries, Learning and Teaching with Habits of Mind, The Tech-Savvy Booktalker (A Guide for 21st-Century Educators), and Digital Storytelling in the Classroom.
Reflections on Statistics and Other Data First Trimester:
The beginning of the year started with a bang for us in the library. Dr. Chelsea Watson, SWM principal, purchased for the library classroom new tables with wheels and paid for the library classroom and entrance to the library to be painted. (It looks great, Thank you!) We had our projector mounted in the library classroom as well. The classroom has evolved into a wonderful learning and meeting space.
The libraries were given this semester a supplementary budget. I used the budgeted money to replace books weeded from last year, update copies and supplemented curricular areas.
As I look at the first half of the school year I see two trends that are significant.
The first is circulation, it is down from last year (-2782). This is significant to me and I attribute it to two changes this year. The first is the implementation of advisory at SWM. We noticed at the beginning of the year the library was empty in the morning, students go to grade level houses at 7:15am and then right to advisory until 8am. Due to this change we began opening our library in September at 7am to draw library patrons in to the library until 7:15am. Students are not allowed to leave advisory during the structured 7:35am - 8:00am. Last year we had homeroom time in which the teachers would allow students to visit and would often bring their classes to the library. The second reason is Communication Arts teachers are not bringing in students as frequently as they have in the past. I am not sure if this is due to "too much to cover," lack of time, classrooms having their own class libraries or teachers using the literacy library collection. We have run contests to promote usage by students, but I have not pushed the teachers to bring in their classes. I will more of that second semester.
The second is the use of more technology, especially blogs and wikis. I have assisted six teachers setting a blog or a wiki this semester. It is neat to see the teachers embracing this technology, but it is a lot work for them to manage. I will continue to encourage and to support them in their development of their blog or wiki.
As mentioned above SWM implemented advisory this school year. Linda Pleiness and I share an advisory group of ten sixth graders. Advisory is every morning from 7:15am - 8:00am. Each day has a theme and lesson that we are required to lead. The students really enjoy the lessons and the conversation. We truly have a great group of students. I was fortunate to have Mrs. Pleiness lead the group with me, as I am often pulled away to a classroom for technology support or to monitor and assist students in the library. I have spoken with all the parents of my advisory group and helped lead with the student their fall parent conference.
During the spring semester, I will continue to promote the library. We will be conducting many activities; Illustration Contest, March Madness, Teen Tech Week, National Library Week, Poetry Month, Spring Book Fair and more. I hope to see our circulation increase as well.
Shannon Burger
January 8, 2010
Second Semester:
Second Trimester was very busy. I presented at METC, MASL, and SWM Round Table, finished work on the middle school curriculum, ran several PR programs and activities, began NF inventory and moved our reference section, as well as continued to collaborate with teachers.
More students seemed to be visiting during advisory this semester. This put some strain on Deanna or Linda because I was helping one or the other. More often than not I would help Deanna with checkout, student or teacher tech needs or book selection. I am thankful I have Linda to continue to guide our advisory group when I am pulled away from the group.
Next year I look forward to pushing the new library curriculum and implementing the library departments new professional development model of Lesson Study and assessment in the Library. See Goals and Reflection page for more about next school year.
2009-2010 Southwest Library Report
Mission StatementsParkway School District Mission Statement
The mission of the Parkway School District is to ensure all students are capable, curious and confident learners who understand and respond to the challenges of an ever-changing world.
District Library Mission Statement
The Librarians have been discussing having the mission of the Parkway School District Library be the same as the District Mission.
School Mission Statement
The mission of Parkway Southwest Middle School is to ensure students are capable, curious, and confident learners who are well equipped to understand and respond to the challenges of an ever-changing world.
School Library Mission Statement 2009 - 2010
The mission of the Southwest Middle School Library Media Center is to ensure that students and staff become effective users of information. Students will be critical thinkers, skillful researchers, ethical users of information and self - directed readers.
Goal Statements
Parkway School District Goals, 2008-2011
1. Increase academic achievement and engagement for all students
2. Increase student success through providing a safe environment, promoting healthy behaviors and fostering positive relationships.
3. Provide learning environments necessary for success in a competitive, global society.
District Library Goals, 2009-2010
School Goals
1. Southwest Middle will achieve proficiency through the Safe Harbor numbers/targets in Communication Arts.
2. Southwest Middle will achieve proficiency through the Safe Harbor numbers/targets in Mathematics.
School Library Goals
1. Provide a program that functions as the information center of the school.
2. Provide a carefully selected and systematically organized local collection of diverse learning materials designed to support the curriculum and encourage leisure reading.
3. Collaborate with and assist the faculty and staff of Southwest Middle.
Overview of the Library Program
The Southwest Middle School Library is open from 7:15 to 2:35 daily, on Thursday the library has extended hours until 3:25. One certified library media specialist and one library secretary, staff the library. Our library is on a flexible schedule. Teachers and students are welcome to visit at anytime throughout the day. Teachers may reserve time for research or visit with a class to check out books. The librarian and teacher collaborate on activities, instruction, research or projects that may occur in the library. The Library is open during all three lunches.
Three components of SWM library program are collaboration, information literacy, and literature appreciation. A spirit of collaboration is present in the library with librarian and teacher. Whether it is through formal communication or casual conversation units of study are discussed, planned and implemented.
Information literacy skills are taught formally and informally to students. The use of the PANDA resources is stress to all students and teachers when researching.
To encourage a love of reading, books and displays have been carefully planned, as well as incentives created for students participate in the Missouri Book Award reading program. The librarian and library secretary are always available to discuss and assist students with book selection.
Interaction with students and teachers is important for the library staff. The librarian and library secretary create a warm and open environment. They are there to meet the needs of the school community in a timely matter.
Library Staffing
The library is staffed by a full time secretary, Deanna Murrel. Deanna's hours are 7:00am to 1:30pm Monday through Friday. Deanna has attended two professional development courses on PhotoShop. She has also attended a Movie Maker and SmartBoard class.
LIBRARY INSTRUCTIONAL PROGRAM
Instruction with students
See side bar for instruction with students for each grade level in middle school.
Addressing the needs of special groups (students of color; boys who may be reluctant readers; students reading above/below grade level….) in instruction or in collection development.
I asked Gina Donato, the Follett representative to guide me to an effective way of identifying "good" diverse books to supplement the SWM library. We used Titlewave's collection development to locate multicultural books and books with high interest, low read levels. I have purchased several from these lists.
I have also replaced worn out classics and placed them in a special collection for our students reading above grade level. Books and posters on display have multicultural themes or photographs.
Collaboration with teachers, instructional coaches and technology integration specialists.
First Trimester collaboration:
Lauren Brauss (6th grade SS) - State, Province and Territory Project. We collaboratively created the rubic for the project. I will be working with her in January to create her project on religions of the world. I will be working on getting away from the "bird unit."Monica Kilcullin (6th grade SS) - South America Project. We collaborated on the rubric and expectations for this project.
Kim Linskog, TIS, and I collaborated for the December Round Table. We used Google presentation and met several times to plan the Round Table discussion. We collaboratively led the discussion.
Second Trimester collaboration:
Eileen Homer (7th grade Comm Arts) & Susan Doering (Lit. Coach) - The three of us collaborated to create, teach and assess a 7th grade Nonfiction unit. The unit concluded with students creating a travel brochure to a destination of their choosing using the book 1000 Places to Visit Before you Die. A class set of these books were purchased with SWM PTO Grant money.Other Resources:
Directions for Creating Travel Brochure.docx
Rubric for nonfiction trip planner.docx
Lauren Brauss (6th grade SS) - Lauren and I collaborated on a religions of the world project using Webspiration. We created, taught and assessed students for this project. Students researched in groups of three a religion of the world, organized the information into webs and presented the information to the class.
Resources:
Webspiration Sign-Up Directions-1.doc
Webspiration Diagram Directions.doc
Julie Cole (7th grade SS) - Julie and I collaborated on an end of the year Middle Ages project. Students researched a topic on the Middle Ages, such as, Holy Wars or Role of Women in Society. Then they researched the same topic in the 1850s, 1950s and present day. Finally, they were to show their learning through a creative presentation of their choosing. Students were required to use books, databases and websites. As the students began internet researching, I reinforced website evaluation they learned last year. For the project, students were required to locate one unreliable website and state why it was unreliable.
Kim Linskog (TIS) - Kim and I collaborated to present a Movie Maker Day. Teachers signed up their classes to learn the ins and outs of Movie Maker.
OTHER LIBRARY ACTIVITIES
Library publicity activities, communication with parents and community, special events
First Trimester:
PTO Book Fair: November 9-12
Teachers and students participated in Book Fair BINGO, grade level challenges and locker lotto.
Principal Newsletter Articles August - December, 2009
NewsAug09.doc
Newssept09.doc
NewsOct09.doc
NewsNov09.doc
NewsDecJan09.doc
Second Trimester:
Principal Newsletter Articles January - May 2010
NewsFeb10a.doc
NewsMarApr10.doc
NewsMay10.doc
Library Book Fair: February 8 - 11
Students participated in Book Fair BINGO, Locker lotto and individual giveaways.
March Madness: SWM Best Reads Tournament.
This Book Tournament is run like the NCAA basketball tournament. Brackets are formed, students choose which books they think will win. Students then vote for their favorites to move books through the brackets.
Teen Tech Week: March 8 -11
Teachers brought their students to the library to participate and learn about various tech tools, such as, Google Searching, Audacity, Movie Maker and Pictures. See attached advertisement and schedule. Teen Tech Week10.pdf
National School Library Week: April 12 - 15
Students participated in "Win it in a SW Minute" Challenges.
Monday – Bobblehead, Place head sweatband with pedometer on it on your head, move head to add steps to pedometer for one minute.
Tuesday – Balloons UP! Keep 2 or 3 balloons in air for one minute.
Wednesday – Stack it Up, students are given a stack of cups all one color except one. Move the odd color cup from the bottom of stack back to the bottom alternating hands.
Thursday – Balloon Blow, blow a balloon up and release air to move cups off a table one at a time.
Friday – CLEAR and CANDY DAY! Come to the library and check your account, if you have no overdue books receive a piece of candy.
Library spaces (furniture, shelving; changing the look of the library; changing the use of your space….):
First Trimester:
During the first trimester the library classroom was repainted and new tables on wheels were purchased. The entrance to the library was also painted. The PTO granted a wish list for $500 to update seating for the library. That money has not been spent yet. Future needs and wants include; painting the pillars, new couches, new computer tables, mounted flat screen TV and more computers (HP laptops).
Second Trimester:
The Library was awarded a PTO grant in the fall. The money was used to purchase a tall table and three red stools for the entrance of the library. Student and staff love the new furniture and wold like to see more. I am in the middle of moving our collections around. I have combined the reference and nonfiction sections and have redesigned the fiction section to look more book store like. Also, I have "pulled out" our classics and graphic novels to create a special collection location.
LMS PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Participation in Professional Organizations
MASL, MSTA, SLSSA
Participation in Parkway Professional Development (district, building, librarians)
o Professional development, training sessions or other presentations delivered to staff
See Side Bar Page
o Professional development attended as a participant
See Side Bar Page
Parkway committees (district, building, librarians)
1. Building Committees
2. Library Committees
3. District committees
Food for thought (Books, articles read. Reflections)
First Trimester:
Much of my reading this trimester revolved around the MO award nominees. My favorites thus far are Billie Standish was Here and Atherton: House of Power. I have been reading Librarians as Learning Specialist for the Collaborative Librarian class with Carol Kohnen. Also, I read monthly library periodicals; LMC, School Library Monthly, and School Library Journal.
An article that Mary Ann McFarland and I wrote appeared in the October issue of LMC. It was pretty exciting to finally see the article in print after all our hard work. I would enjoy submitting work to a periodical in the future.
Second Trimester:
I continue to stay up to date on school library matters through professional periodicals. I began to read the new nominees for 2010-11. My summer reading list consists of Truman nominees and 21st -Century Learning in School Libraries, Learning and Teaching with Habits of Mind, The Tech-Savvy Booktalker (A Guide for 21st-Century Educators), and Digital Storytelling in the Classroom.
Reflections on Statistics and Other Data
First Trimester:
The beginning of the year started with a bang for us in the library. Dr. Chelsea Watson, SWM principal, purchased for the library classroom new tables with wheels and paid for the library classroom and entrance to the library to be painted. (It looks great, Thank you!) We had our projector mounted in the library classroom as well. The classroom has evolved into a wonderful learning and meeting space.
The libraries were given this semester a supplementary budget. I used the budgeted money to replace books weeded from last year, update copies and supplemented curricular areas.
As I look at the first half of the school year I see two trends that are significant.
The first is circulation, it is down from last year (-2782). This is significant to me and I attribute it to two changes this year. The first is the implementation of advisory at SWM. We noticed at the beginning of the year the library was empty in the morning, students go to grade level houses at 7:15am and then right to advisory until 8am. Due to this change we began opening our library in September at 7am to draw library patrons in to the library until 7:15am. Students are not allowed to leave advisory during the structured 7:35am - 8:00am. Last year we had homeroom time in which the teachers would allow students to visit and would often bring their classes to the library. The second reason is Communication Arts teachers are not bringing in students as frequently as they have in the past. I am not sure if this is due to "too much to cover," lack of time, classrooms having their own class libraries or teachers using the literacy library collection. We have run contests to promote usage by students, but I have not pushed the teachers to bring in their classes. I will more of that second semester.
The second is the use of more technology, especially blogs and wikis. I have assisted six teachers setting a blog or a wiki this semester. It is neat to see the teachers embracing this technology, but it is a lot work for them to manage. I will continue to encourage and to support them in their development of their blog or wiki.
As mentioned above SWM implemented advisory this school year. Linda Pleiness and I share an advisory group of ten sixth graders. Advisory is every morning from 7:15am - 8:00am. Each day has a theme and lesson that we are required to lead. The students really enjoy the lessons and the conversation. We truly have a great group of students. I was fortunate to have Mrs. Pleiness lead the group with me, as I am often pulled away to a classroom for technology support or to monitor and assist students in the library. I have spoken with all the parents of my advisory group and helped lead with the student their fall parent conference.
During the spring semester, I will continue to promote the library. We will be conducting many activities; Illustration Contest, March Madness, Teen Tech Week, National Library Week, Poetry Month, Spring Book Fair and more. I hope to see our circulation increase as well.
Shannon Burger
January 8, 2010
Second Semester:
Second Trimester was very busy. I presented at METC, MASL, and SWM Round Table, finished work on the middle school curriculum, ran several PR programs and activities, began NF inventory and moved our reference section, as well as continued to collaborate with teachers.
More students seemed to be visiting during advisory this semester. This put some strain on Deanna or Linda because I was helping one or the other. More often than not I would help Deanna with checkout, student or teacher tech needs or book selection. I am thankful I have Linda to continue to guide our advisory group when I am pulled away from the group.
Next year I look forward to pushing the new library curriculum and implementing the library departments new professional development model of Lesson Study and assessment in the Library. See Goals and Reflection page for more about next school year.
Shannon Burger
June 1, 2010